The Impact of Language Policy in South AfricaThe Gap Between Education Goals and the Government’s Multilingual Mission

WORDS Masayo Ohyama

An inclusive and dynamic language policy plays an important role in South Africa’s mission to embrace linguistic and cultural diversity. Within the education system, the nation has developed goals for multilingualism. However, this can be especially challenging to implement in a country like South Africa, where – since 1994 – there are 11 official languages.

According to Professor Laurence Wright, Senior Research Associate at North-West University, the decision to adopt the current National Language Policy (NLP) was essentially a political one and, while inclusive of all 11 languages, policy planners radically miscalculated the character and strength of the social motivation required to drive language development of this kind and on the scale assumed by the NLP.

Wright explains, ‘Those involved were neither linguists nor language planners, and, inadvertently, the NLP ensured the continuing dominance of English in the central economy and in public life.’

One of the fundamental flaws in the language policy is the neglect to first re-educate and professionally develop enough African-language teachers in South Africa.

One of the biggest obstacles in the implementation of the IIAL is the lack of skilled teachers who can competently teach all 11 official languages. Photo: Angelina Litvin/Unsplash

‘The need is for better educated, better trained, and well-motivated language teachers, whatever language they teach,’ says Wright. ‘English will always be unattainable if we neglect to re-educate language teachers; but in that case so will quality education in Afrikaans and African languages. Under present conditions, good quality African-language education is just as unattainable, in fact, more so.’

The results of recent research showed poor learning outcomes in South Africa. Further, many scholars and research-oriented institutions pointed out that the government has done very little to improve the situation. In addition, Section 29 of the South African Bill of Rights states that: ‘Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in public educational institutions.’ The Bill further places the onus on government to take the necessary steps to ensure this is possible and also ‘to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices.’

These facts, combined with the NLP-related challenges as emphasised by Wright, have forced the government to recognise the need to strengthen African language teaching in order to improve learning outcomes – hence the implementation of the Incremental Introduction of African Languages (IIAL) policy.

The IIAL, which the government started to implement back in 2013, requires students from Grades 1 to 12 to learn three languages (previously two: home language and first additional language). One of the three languages must be an indigenous African language.

Mathanzima Mweli, director general for the Department of Basic Education, told the parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education, ‘The core of this strategy is to contribute toward social cohesion. Schools are incubators of future citizens.’

The government’s rationale behind this is to improve multilingualism, promote social cohesion and to develop African languages as a significant way of preserving heritage and culture.

The government’s rationale behind this is to improve multilingualism, promote social cohesion and to develop African languages as a significant way of preserving heritage and culture.

Background of the National Language Policy

Before the promulgation of the new constitution in 1994, the government approved 11 African languages as official languages, including English and Afrikaans.

In 1995, the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB) was created to promote multilingualism. They established a system that uses the home language of the region as a medium of instruction until Grade 3, then learners switch to English as the language of instruction from Grade 4.

It’s worth noting that the PANSALB was later dissolved due to excessive spending and a lack of leadership.

In 2017, The Economist reported that ‘a shocking 27% of children who have attended school for six years (in South Africa) cannot read, compared with 4% in Tanzania and 19% in Zimbabwe.’ A league table of education systems showed that South Africa ranks 75th out of 76 countries.

Professor Shireen Motala from the University of Johannesburg argues that ‘many parents prefer (with their children’s concurrence) to have their children taught in the second language of English by teachers who are themselves second language speakers of English.’

‘The core of the strategy is to contribute towards social cohesion. Schools are incubators of future citizens,’ said Mathanzima Mweli, the Director General for the DBE. Photo: Santi Vedri/Unsplash

One reason for this is that despite NLP efforts to promote multilingualism, both government and the business sector use English as the lingua franca, so parents want to ensure their children can access employment after their schooling is finished.

In an article for the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Margaret Probyn from the University of the Western Cape cites that in township schools, both teachers and students are teaching and learning in a language they cannot properly communicate in. This means that, ‘the medium of instruction becomes a barrier to effective learning and teaching.’

However, Probyn also noted that ‘teachers demonstrated and were able to articulate a wide range of teaching strategies to mediate students’ cognitive and affective needs; most notably, a skilful code-switching between English and Xhosa.’

Nevertheless, the dual nature of instruction can result in students not properly engaging with the curriculum, which leads to poor results because neither the teacher nor learner understands how to use English well.

Karen Ferreira-Meyers at the University of Swaziland and Fiona Horne at the University of the Witwatersrand argue that for a majority of African language-speaking students, the early transition to English-medium instruction leads to poor learning outcomes of their home language.

Peter Erikson, a Grade 4 English/Afrikaans bilingual teacher at Fairview Primary School in Cape Town, says ‘learners who have a solid foundation and proficiency in their home language, find it easier to transition to new languages as opposed to grappling with both.’

Therefore, it would be better if the teaching and learning in English (if this isn’t the home language) be delayed until the later stages, ie around Grade 6 or 7 of primary school.

Professor Angelina Kioko agrees. She explains that it is both better for the teacher and learner to instruct and learn in home language. ‘It has also been shown that skills and concepts taught in the learners’ home language do not have to be re-taught when they transfer to a second language. A learner who knows how to read and write in one language will develop reading and writing skills in a new language faster.’

The implementation of the IIAL

With 1103 primary schools, the Western Cape province has the largest number of schools offering Afrikaans and English as the first and second languages.

This is according to Jessica Shelver from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), who adds that Xhosa is offered at almost 25% of the province’s schools.

‘Following a successful pilot (of the IIAL policy) in 10 schools over the last 3 years, the WCED, at the start of the second school term (for 2018), rolled out Xhosa to an additional 260 schools,’ she says.

Cindy Abrahams, a Grade 4 English/Afrikaans bilingual teacher explained that at Fairview Primary School, in Grades 1 and 2, all students learn in English. In Grade 3, all students learn in English and learn Afrikaans as a second language. As part of the IIAL implementation, soon Grade 1 students will learn Xhosa as a third language. The school’s language of instruction is English.

The Daily Vox reports that a teacher in Johannesburg, who has been teaching Zulu, said ‘the government provided funding and the IIAL Language Toolkit in 2017 but the contract was not renewed this year,’ and ‘some other schools couldn’t take the teachers so their contracts were terminated and the learners just stopped learning Zulu.’

The Northern Cape had the best implementation of IIAL, with 90% of its 29 targeted schools now offering either Setswana or isiXhosa. Gauteng has with 36% of its 682 targeted schools, and had a choice of six different previously marginalised languages.

Challenges around the implementation of IIAL

One of the biggest obstacles facing the implementation of the IIAL is the lack of skilled teachers who can competently teach each of the 11 official languages.

The Economist reported that in South Africa, 27% of children in Grade 6 cannot read. Without a strong-performing education system, some experts have questioned the viability of the IIAL. Photo: Tamarcus Brown/Unsplash

Elijah Mhlanga, Spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education, said in a radio interviewon Radio 702 last year that the department has enhanced its recruitment processes ‘to attract as many young people as possible to come into teaching as a profession and to focus on African languages in particular.’

Shelver stressed that the Western Cape has followed Gauteng by using an itinerant model (introduced in 2015) which means that 7 teachers have been servicing 10 schools. She says, ‘It is regarded as one of the winning models should there be no budget constraints and scarcity of African speaking teachers in the province to implement the strategy.’

Producing teaching materials in multiple languages is another challenge for the IIAL. While students may want to learn an African language, many languages still need to be standardised and textbooks, reading materials, dictionaries etc. need to be developed.

Mhlanga says the department has been working with various publishers to ensure the relevant learning materials are produced to complement the policy’s implementation. The Department of Basic Education has also developed and distributed the IIAL Language Toolkit to all participating schools.

The importance of education cannot be underestimated. The idea to encourage multilingualism within the education system to foster equal respect and status for all African languages via the IIAL is a strategic way to promote social cohesion and heritage. Shelver emphasises ‘there is no pressure on the learners to master the language in full.’

However, experts differ on whether home language should solely be taught until senior primary, or indeed whether an education system where more children repeat grades as they advance through the academic institution means that a number of issues need to be solved first before any practical and sustainable headway can be made regarding effective language policy.

Masayo was born in a monolingual country but her interest in multilingualism led her to study bilingual education for ten years and earn a PhD in education. Deeply fascinated by South Africa’s multilingual culture, she wanted to explore the topic while at the Cape Chameleon magazine.